Use Unscented Detergent to Clean Rubber Jaw Traps

Q: Since lye is no longer sold in stores, what would you recommend to clean rubber jaw traps?

Jim Spencer Responds:
Commercial products containing enough lye to clean traps are still on the store shelves.

Sani-Flush is one brand, and there are others. It’s not as potent as the old Red Devil lye, but it still works.

However, even when pure lye was available, I would never have recommended it for cleaning rubber-jawed traps.

I have a basic disagreement with the use of rubber-jawed traps anyway — but that’s another subject altogether.

If you are going to use them, boil the traps in unscented detergent (like paranoid deer hunters use on their clothes) followed by a thorough rinse, followed by a 24-hour soak in water with baking soda, and another good rinse.

That will clean and deodorize them as well as anything.

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